Spirituality Leads to Self-Idolatry | Here’s How

Hi friends,

Here is my final food for thought for Part 3 of my Love Letter series, 7Strongholds God Delivered Me From.

Some years ago, I called myself spiritual. Now as I walk with Christ, I decided to share perspectives I’ve gained on the concept of spirituality.

Feel free to share your thoughts in the comment section below.

Something I warn believers of in my last Love Letter, The Dangers of Spirituality, is adhering to theologies, doctrines or practices that glorify self instead of Christ.

Today’s media constantly exposes us to motivational speeches, 30-sec Instagram clips and online courses that condition us to believe that self is all that we need. It’s this very belief that presents contradictions to the fundamentals of Christianity.

I see that where spirituality teaches you to obtain your “highest self”, Christianity teaches you to come to the end of your self (Galatians 5:16-17). I see that where spirituality teaches you to exercise reign over your body, Christianity informs us that our bodies are not ours to begin with (1 Cor. 6:19-20).

We’re told that we have the power and right to fulfill our own needs. Thus, we have practices to glorify our thoughts, emotions, desires and body.

This insults God’s order for healing, wisdom, redemption, and salvation.

You can see how we make ourselves sovereign over God. How everything about the self—thoughts, emotions, carnal desires, body—becomes idolized.

God does not point us to us for our spiritual needs. He points us to Christ.

Scriptural References:

• 1 Corinthians 1:9

• John 5: 37-40

• John 6:35-40

  
  

I think it’s important for believers to understand the fundamental truth that the Word does not testif about believers, rather it testifies about Christ. The Word is Christ:

“In the beginning [before all time] was the Word (Christ), and the Word was with God, and the Word was God Himself. He was [continually existing] in the beginning [co-eternally] with God. All things were made and came into existence through Him; and without Him not even one thing was made that has come into being.”

‭‭John‬ ‭1‬:‭1‬-‭3‬ ‭(amplified version)‬‬, The Deity of Jesus Christ.

In an Instagram video regarding this post, I add an aspect of my personal journey when first giving my life back to Christ.

After I fully surrendered to God what was keeping me spiritually separated from Him, I felt this natural drawing to study and understand Jesus. It’s like God was pointing me to Him so that our relationship can be sustained and mature. That drawing was potent about six months after fully surrenderance.

Believers and those who vouch for spirituality must know that we cannot honor God without honoring His Son (John 5:22-23). We cannot please God without having faith in His Son.

Take note that righteousness with God was established through Jesus’s fulfillment of the law—we were not able to do it. So, salvation is ours not by our own means but by the means of Christ. He is so crucial in our relationship with God.

If all roads point to Christ, why should we glorify anything that does not?

Read the full letter on my blog or watch the discussion on YouTube.

All links provided here:

www.direct.me/aniamonet 

Watch this Show For the Holidays: The Chosen

Hi friends,

Happy holidays! Today, I wanted to share some insight I’ve gained from watching a TV show on Peacock, The Chosen, a historical drama based on the life of Jesus and his everyday interactions with the people who knew Him best.

I’m always leery of watching biblical dramas—often they aren’t biblically true—but this show has been different for me! I am rocked by how much Jesus, the first twelve disciples and others were humanized. Let’s dig in!

As someone who enjoys learning, one thing that I’ve come to love about Jesus is His style of teaching. It includes great analogies and parables to study and apply in my every day life.

Ultimately though, this show clarified why His arrival was imperative during that era.

In the centuries prior, #Hebrewculture and religion was based on the Law of Moses, whose precepts became a weapon within the nation of Israel to boast, condemn and persecute instead of remain within God’s intention to guide, inform, and establish fellowship with Him.

If you read the #OldTestament, you’ll learn about the history of Israel, leading all the way up to the prophecies of the Messiah. We see in the show how much the Israelites were looking forward to this coming, longing to be freed from the Law that kingdoms and society weaponized against one another other.

Some thought the Messiah would be a military leader, king, or judge that would defeat the kingdom of Rome, or any other major enemy of the Israelites.

But no one expected the prophecies to be fulfilled in the way that they did.

Matthew 5:17-18 NIV says,

“Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them. For truly I tell you, until heaven and earth disappear, not the smallest letter, not the least stroke of a pen, will by any means disappear from the Law until everything is accomplished.”

The image is a constant visual of the critical work Jesus did and is still doing today.

God’s commands are God’s commands; though you and I sin, therefore fall short of His Law, we don’t just do away with it because we aren’t able to fulfill it perfectly. Christ has fulfilled the Law for us, therefore we repent when we’ve fallen short and devote a way of living that’s outlined by God’s Law and strengthened through Christ’s teachings.

"Out of his fullness we have all received grace in place of grace already given. For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ." (John 1:16-17 NIV)

I hope this helps someone.

Thanks for reading❤️